This is a history of the Irish-American experience, which focuses on religion, politics and Irish nationalism.

An evocotive tale of coming to womanhood in the disorienting 1960s-a girl in the world of nuns and the Holy Ghost-but on a deeper level, this is a story of a woman who has suffered unimaglnable loss and attempts to make sense of that loss by re-imagining her past and her own Irish-American heritage. The first in her family born in the United States, Maureen grew up the Bronx Irish daughter of two unforgettable immigrants: her storytelling, former revolutionary father, and her fierce, IRA-supporting mother. Crossing Higbbridge is framed by the accidental death of Waters's son and her struggle...

Breaking with tradition, this text argues that many of Beckett's texts are deeply involved in Irish issues and situations. It provides an understanding of Beckett's work in its representation of Ireland, of Irish history, and of Irish literary traditions.

This work applies Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of literary discourse and the concept of carnivalisation to the work of Flann O'Brien. The author emphasizes the political and social implications of the writings, arguing that O'Brien maintained a reflexive focus on language throughout his career.

In this anaysis of Roddy Doyle's first five novels, Caramine White argues that while Doyle is undoubtedly one of the most popular contemporary novelists, he also needs to be seen as a serious snd gifted writer.

A collection of essays written by well-known contemporary Irish women poets about their lives in relation to their own poetics. It is a conglomeration of voices around common themes, which have recently and forcefully emerged to permanently change Irish poetry.

The selected plays show the extraordinary variety of Irish drama today as well as the brilliance of Irish playwrights, both seasoned veterans and those beginning to build reputations on the stages of the world's premier national theatre, The Abbey. The first play by award-winning playwright Michael Harding, Sour Grapes, explores the taboos of seminary life including paedophilia and homosexuality. Thomas Kilroy's The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde tells the historical drama of the marriage of Constance to Oscar Wilde and recounts the tragedy that was her marriage and life. Interlocking lives...

Joyce was a realist, but his reality was not ours, writes John Gordon in his new book. Here, he maintains that the shifting styles and techniques of Joyce's works is a function of two interacting realities - the external reality of a particular time and place and the internal reality of a character's mental state. In making this case Gordon offers up a number of new readings: how Stephen Dedalus conceives and composes his villanelle; why the Dubliners story about Little Chandler is titled A Little Cloud; why MacDowell suddenly appears and disappears; what is happening when Leopold Bloom looks...

John Redmond was one of the most influential leaders of Irish nationalism. A classic tragic hero, Redmond displayed more integrity than his fellow contemporary Irish leaders. He was a sophisticated intellectual with an open mind but was plagued by a fatal flaw - his unreasonable optimism. Redmond's trust in British politicians, especially his Liberal allies, led him and Ireland to the events that probably had the most impact on Irish history since the Great Famine of the 1840s - his active support for Great Britain in the first World War. It severely damaged Anglo-Irish relations for three...

In this compelling work, Rebecca Pelan analyzes religion, region, class, and national and ethnic identity as crucial contexts in shaping feminist consciousness in the two Irelands, and compares the divergence of feminist perspectives to be found North and South of the border. The very different histories of the North and South are reflected in their literature. While women in the Republic of Ireland have tended to write about social issues--"sexism, crime, unemployment, and domestic violence--"women in Northern Ireland focused on their society's historical tension and primarily nationalist...